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LAVA's Legendary Union Campaign


LAVA

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Just watched the Antietam & Iuka videos.  Nicely done at Antietam, given your mostly 0/1-star infantry against roughly equal numbers of 2/3-star Rebels often in good defensive positions.

One thing that struck me about your Antietam fight:  Given the intensity, duration, and high casualty rate, it seems like your officer losses were surprisingly light.  So there's another silver lining coming out of that bloodbath.

At Iuka, the timer expired before you took the flag (although you were pretty close).  That's pretty common, but then I noticed that your line was right up to the flag, just barely far enough away not to cap it.  Opposition was only a brigade or two, so it seemed intentional.  Makes sense, in order to inflict more casualties....but this went on for a while, and I started getting nervous that "overtime" was going to expire before you stepped forward to the VP.   In this battle, does overtime just keep going indefinitely as long as the player doesn't activate the "Contested" countdown?

After two full campaigns, I still haven't fully figured out how these timers work.  Sometimes there's a short overtime, sometimes long, sometimes none at all.  As CSA I had to completely refight a Chickamauga which had actually gone very well, and my guys were just a couple hundred yards from that last VP in the northwest.  Boom!  Then the timer handed me not even a draw, but an outright defeat.    I've been pretty leery of the timer since.  

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Bramborough said:

Just watched the Antietam & Iuka videos.  Nicely done at Antietam, given your mostly 0/1-star infantry against roughly equal numbers of 2/3-star Rebels often in good defensive positions.

One thing that struck me about your Antietam fight:  Given the intensity, duration, and high casualty rate, it seems like your officer losses were surprisingly light.  So there's another silver lining coming out of that bloodbath.

At Iuka, the timer expired before you took the flag (although you were pretty close).  That's pretty common, but then I noticed that your line was right up to the flag, just barely far enough away not to cap it.  Opposition was only a brigade or two, so it seemed intentional.  Makes sense, in order to inflict more casualties....but this went on for a while, and I started getting nervous that "overtime" was going to expire before you stepped forward to the VP.   In this battle, does overtime just keep going indefinitely as long as the player doesn't activate the "Contested" countdown?

After two full campaigns, I still haven't fully figured out how these timers work.  Sometimes there's a short overtime, sometimes long, sometimes none at all.  As CSA I had to completely refight a Chickamauga which had actually gone very well, and my guys were just a couple hundred yards from that last VP in the northwest.  Boom!  Then the timer handed me not even a draw, but an outright defeat.    I've been pretty leery of the timer since.  

 

 

The timer thing doesn't bother me any more, sometimes i took the objective later than the timer and i did not get a defeat. Except twice at the battle of Washington where i ended in defeat because i failed to take the big fort in time. All the other engagements i never had a defeat because i failed to take the objective within the given time. So there must be something about it to trigger? Don't have a clue to be honest.

@LAVA in some battles i see you don't position your brigades at the edge of the woods, is that on purpose? I always try to place them on the edge or a bit behind if the cover is 160%. In other areas the cover is 150% in woods.

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@Bramborough

For Grand Battles such as Antietam, I shuffle my troops around so that each have the same amount of experienced troops in them. I don't go for one really experienced Corps and one really poor one. I go for 2 balanced Corps. If you look at the beginning of Iuka you will see when I show the saves of before and after Antietam that each Corps 1st Division had high quality infantry. Perhaps that is why they did so well. Another thing I have a suspicion about is that having troops on each flank adds morale to the line. So I try to be very methodical about keeping my line in good order and if necessary "refuse" my farthest brigades from engaging so that my flank is not exposed.

The timers... well. It is hard to predict. Generally though, once you take the objective, THAT timer... most times ends the battle. So yes, at Iuka I stood away from the objective and let the Rebs keep trying to protect it. However, in general the overall timers, especially in Grand Battles, is used to pressure you into pushing too hard. Even though I know that, at Antietam you will see that I feel into the trap and lost a lot of men trying to take the Sunken Road only to have the battle extended once again.

@Mukremin

Yes, I realize the best cover is inside the woods and actually I try to use that to my advantage. However, it depends on the situation and if I can't position my men to fire from there I will take them to the edge, as some cover is better than none. I think in Iuka I moved them to the edge in front of the objective because the Rebs were in an open area so my cover was far superior to theirs. At Perryville I use the woods in the North to the maximum extent possible and you will notice that as the Rebs retreat I explain that I was very hesitant about bringing them out of the woods into the open as I chased after them.

 

EDIT: Actually I reviewed the saves and nope I didn't balance my Corps for Antietam. So yep, I guess I was pretty lucky the way things turned out.

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Fought the Battle of Fredericksburg last night. I attempted to attack the center and then try to flank the Heights on the Confederate left flank. Unfortunately, the last 3 hours of the battle the left flank was not available to attack, so I dug in and took the Draw. It's a long video with not much to see, so will not publish it.

ck4l2cb.png

Image is from the video so not so great. Overall I lost 5,960 men and 7 guns to the Confederates 21,012 men, 44 guns and 314 missing. Unhappy with my 2nd Draw in a Grand Battle, but at least I inflicted lots of casualties.

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4 hours ago, LAVA said:

Fought the Battle of Fredericksburg last night. I attempted to attack the center and then try to flank the Heights on the Confederate left flank. Unfortunately, the last 3 hours of the battle the left flank was not available to attack, so I dug in and took the Draw. It's a long video with not much to see, so will not publish it.

ck4l2cb.png

Image is from the video so not so great. Overall I lost 5,960 men and 7 guns to the Confederates 21,012 men, 44 guns and 314 missing. Unhappy with my 2nd Draw in a Grand Battle, but at least I inflicted lots of casualties.

hmm, you have few losses so that is good but a victory would have been great. I left the hill alone and flanked the first objective (prospect hill) from the left and proceeded towards the objective. Then i took Telegraph road which was enough for a victory.

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19 hours ago, Mukremin said:

hmm, you have few losses so that is good but a victory would have been great. I left the hill alone and flanked the first objective (prospect hill) from the left and proceeded towards the objective. Then i took Telegraph road which was enough for a victory.

Last night I won the battle of Stone River. But you are right, it would be nice to have a victory (and video) of Fredericksburg, so I will give it another try. Your strategy seems sound.

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So here it is: Battle of Fredericksburg. Looks like I had the correct strategy the first time, but turned the wrong direction! :lol:

Anyway, besides low casualties overall... the disapperance of my cavalry mid battle... I reap some great rewards to push my campaign forward.

Thanks, Mukremin!

 

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5 minutes ago, LAVA said:

So here it is: Battle of Fredericksburg. Looks like I had the correct strategy the first time, but turned the wrong direction! :lol:

Anyway, besides low casualties overall... the disapperance of my cavalry mid battle... I reap some great rewards to push my campaign forward.

Thanks, Mukremin!

 

wow that is a nice victory! small difference between your and my tactic, i took Prospect Hill on turn 1 and that's where i took most of my losses. Perhaps i should have waited like you. But you never know, the CSA diverted it's attention to help the other forces which suited your strategy.  :D

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23 minutes ago, Mukremin said:

wow that is a nice victory! small difference between your and my tactic, i took Prospect Hill on turn 1 and that's where i took most of my losses. Perhaps i should have waited like you. But you never know, the CSA diverted it's attention to help the other forces which suited your strategy.  :D

Indeed, they started counter-attacking with their troops from the right flank and my boys were able to slip in there and take the objective. After the battle I was thinking maybe I should have held back from taking the second objective for awhile and let them attack me in the center. I possibly could have raked up a lot more casualties that way.

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1 minute ago, LAVA said:

Indeed, they started counter-attacking with their troops from the right flank and my boys were able to slip in there and take the objective. After the battle I was thinking maybe I should have held back from taking the second objective for awhile and let them attack me in the center. I possibly could have raked up a lot more casualties that way.

Yeah that could have worked well considering the amount if time you had to inflict more kills. But still, a great and important victory. What is next?

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Parker's Crossroads and Stones River.

But first I have to see what I am going to do with all that money for my army. I have been struggling to get my numbers up and am thinking about buying recruits and rifles with my reputation.

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I send my best into Parker's Crossroads and kick some Reb butt. But the casualties incurred and the upcoming battle of Stones River force me to spend my reputation on recruits for the first time in the Campaign.

 

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In this video I fight the Battle of Nansemond River. I bring 3 of my best batteries to beat on the Confederates and their fortifications only to find in the end that I was not only outnumbered, but the Confederates were armed with some of the best weapons in the game (Fayetteville rifles, 24pdr Howitzers and Lemat armed cavalry). Nevertheless I take the fortifications and 3550 prisoners (of which I only receive 1000 recruits in return :huh:). Most of the game is played at double speed as I let my artillery hammer my fortified opponent and my artillery accounts for 13,000 casualties of the 28,500 rebs in opposition. It is a bloody and drawn out affair costing me 9,000 casualties...

 

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On 9-2-2018 at 3:37 PM, LAVA said:

In this video I fight the Battle of Nansemond River. I bring 3 of my best batteries to beat on the Confederates and their fortifications only to find in the end that I was not only outnumbered, but the Confederates were armed with some of the best weapons in the game (Fayetteville rifles, 24pdr Howitzers and Lemat armed cavalry). Nevertheless I take the fortifications and 3550 prisoners (of which I only receive 1000 recruits in return :huh:). Most of the game is played at double speed as I let my artillery hammer my fortified opponent and my artillery accounts for 13,000 casualties of the 28,500 rebs in opposition. It is a bloody and drawn out affair costing me 9,000 casualties...

 

A great victory mate, never tried this approach. You did almost wipe out the entire CSA army.

I always rush with my brigades while the fort is not manned, after that it is just repel the charges and attacks. They bleed themselves out.

On to the next battle commander Lava!

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On 2/20/2018 at 9:54 AM, Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf said:

You only ever receive 1000 recruits for your POWs, because in Early Access some CSA players abused this system to get huge numbers of recruits early game.

Wish they changed this to rep points. 1 per 1k would be fine - with that perhaps you "could afford to loose" a major battle mid/late campaign without ending the playthrough.

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On 2/2/2018 at 1:24 PM, LAVA said:

Fought the Battle of Fredericksburg last night. I attempted to attack the center and then try to flank the Heights on the Confederate left flank. Unfortunately, the last 3 hours of the battle the left flank was not available to attack, so I dug in and took the Draw. It's a long video with not much to see, so will not publish it.

ck4l2cb.png

Image is from the video so not so great. Overall I lost 5,960 men and 7 guns to the Confederates 21,012 men, 44 guns and 314 missing. Unhappy with my 2nd Draw in a Grand Battle, but at least I inflicted lots of casualties.

I just returned to my own playthrough and gave Fredricksburg a go. Those are the results:
 

 

tfmMQWG.jpg

As seen, I have decided to go straight for Mayer's Hills and Telegraph Road. My elite Corp, under my character's command, have charged the fortifications on the border between the MH and TR, near the stream - and that's where bulk of my casualties had been taken. 4 two-star and 3-star brigades had gave confederates a bayonet on just one short stretch of the wall and since there confederates kinda folded up especially since I have pushed my cavalry, two rifle and 2 telescopic rifle units through which assisted in taking out entrenched artillery positions. On the meantime, rest of my army rested while positioning themselves for a future attack on telegraph road. The attack actually was going quite slow and with pretty small casualties in general, but was successful as my 2 cavalry battalions noticed a gap between confederate troops and charged through to take the telegraph station ending the battle prematurely.

In general I'm quite content with the results as I was able to replenish my troops with veterans and I had cash left to buy out all the guns I wanna stockpile plus let me afford raising another 4k of infantry with rifles not muskets. I have also managed to finish reforming divisions in my two primary corps to a standard format of 3 (or 2 elite) infantry brigades, divisional artillery battalion (12 3inches) plus a rifle battalion of 350 with Sharp rifles for each division.

Relatively small confederate losses are only concern for me but in general I'm still satisfied.

 

On 2/22/2018 at 9:37 AM, Hjalfnar_Feuerwolf said:

That would be abusable, too. I mean, even on Legendary it is possible to make 10k POWs at 1st Bull Run.

Unless the system would be implemented differently, more akin to having an EXP bar in the camp which you "fill with pows" and once filled you get a certain rewards. It would had this advantage that "no pow would be lost" between battles, and rewards could be easily tweaked for each difficulty setting or even chapter. Besides rep points alone wouldn't broke the balance I think. But even if they were, rewards could be different - like generals for example. 

Edited by Hussar91
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After numerous attempts at a victory (Brigadier level) I gave up and decided that for the Union side, Fredricksburg was that "can't win 'em all" idea that the game instructions mentioned.  The best I could do was a draw while inflicting about 8K more casualties on the Confederates than I received.  I did this by attacking the Confederate right and left flanks while leaving the center alone.  An interesting side-note: because none of the icons can leave the screen I managed to trap Stuart's cavalry in the lower right corner of the screen and destroyed all but two of his companies.

Edited by Private Keith
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